This week we will celebrate Great Hearts Day in our classrooms on Wednesday. We will hold a celebration focused on the virtue of Friendship. There will be some snacks in the classroom. If you have a student who has allergies to food, please send them an extra snack that day.

This week we will be learning the following:

Literature:

We will continue reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Any quizzes previously scheduled for Monday will be on Tuesday, due to the R & R weekend. Please ensure that your scholar brings their personal copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to school until further notice. Students can use their personal copy of the novel when completing quizzes. They may not share books with another student during that time. We will also be exploring the idea of perspective and problem and solution in literature.

Grammar:

We will learn about proper nouns and direct objects as they relate to diagramming sentences.

Writing:

We will be learning about where authors get their ideas and relating that to their own writing.

Math:

In Math we will be continuing to learn about Mass and Weight. This week we will add pounds and ounces.

History:

We will be discovering who the Earliest Americans were and how they lived.

Great Hearts Day: In February, we have our Great Hearts Day celebration coming up on February 14th. At Great Hearts, we do not have a Valentine’s Day celebration. Instead, we choose to celebrate the virtues that are the foundation for our core beliefs. We will be celebrating friendship in our classroom. The following are some reminders:

1. We will have a celebration in the classroom that will last approximately an hour.
2. We do not allow distribution of “Valentines.” Please do not send Valentines with your student to school.
3. Please contact the Classroom Parents for your classroom if you have questions about the celebration in your classroom. We will be having individual celebrations for this event, so the details may vary from classroom to classroom.

A Look at this Week:

ELA: Literature: We begin reading The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe this week. Please ensure your student brings the book to school on Monday. We will begin by focusing on Setting.

Grammar: We will continue focusing on sentence diagramming with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

We will have a Vocabulary Quick Check on Monday.

Math: In Maths this week we will begin learning about Mass and Weight. We begin with grams and kilograms. There will be a quick check assessment on Friday.

History: In History we will wrap up our unit on the Vikings. You should have seen a study guide come home on Friday. There will be a unit test on Thursday.

Science: In science we will continue to explore our eyes and vision, learning about the eye and the brain work together.

Great Hearts Day: In February, we have our Great Hearts Day celebration coming up on February 14th. At Great Hearts, we do not have a Valentine’s Day celebration. Instead, we choose to celebrate the virtues that are the foundation for our core beliefs. We will be celebrating friendship in our classroom. The following are some reminders:

We will have a celebration in the classroom that will last approximately an hour.
We do not allow distribution of “Valentines.” Please do not send Valentines with your student to school.
Please contact the Classroom Parents for your classroom if you have questions about the celebration in your classroom. We will be having individual celebrations for this event, so the details may vary from classroom to classroom.

This week we have Class Pictures on the Thursday, the 25th. This is the picture that is taken with the entire class. Students should have brought home an order form from Lifetouch last week. Should you be interested in ordering a class photo for this year, you must pay online before Thursday.

A Look at this Week:

ELA:In Literature we will continue reading The Wind in the Willows with a focus on the central message or theme.

In Grammar we will continue focusing on diagramming a sentence with nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

We will have a Vocabulary Quick Check on Monday.

Math: In Maths this week we will continue exploring measurement. This week we add kilometers to meters and centimeters. There will be a quick check assessment on Friday.

History: In History we will begin our unit on Vikings, beginning with general facts about the Viking Age, and the pressures that drove Nordic peoples to raiding and occupying new lands.

Science: In science we will continue to explore our eyes and vision, learning about the parts of the eye and how we see.

Welcome back after our long weekend – we have an abbreviated Spalding load this week, with 10 words each Tue/Wed, with the usual pre-test Thursday and actual test Friday. Here is a look at the curriculum for this week:

Rome Project:

Presentations are completed – your student should have taken home their project – they will be receiving their graded rubric and essays back in their take-home folders within the next week, along with the notes they took whilst their fellow-students were presenting. Hopefully they learned a little from each presentation they witnessed.

A Look at this Week:

ELA: Literature: We will focus on character traits as we continue reading our Wind in the Willows story. In grammar, we will use sentence diagramming to focus on parts of speech (nouns and verbs). In writing we will be practicing organizing our thoughts in preparation for writing a paragraph, focusing on the structure of paragraphs. Our Vocab Quiz will be given on our first day back (Tuesday, 1/16). We will go back to administering the Vocab Quiz on Mondays next week.

Math: In Maths this week we will begin exploring measurement, beginning with the metric system. During this unit, there will be a mini assessment every Friday.

History: In History we will begin our unit on Vikings, beginning with general facts about the Viking Age, and the pressures that drove Nordic peoples to raiding and occupying new lands.

Science: In science we will continue to explore our eyes and vision, learning about the parts of the eye and how we see.

Extra Credit:

Over winter break, some students brought home an extra credit packet that was provided on the last day of school. Please take note: This is not required. The packet will be due anytime during 3rd quarter. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Welcome back to school! We are anticipating that teachers, students, and especially parents, are ready for a return to some semblance of a routine!

On that note…. Please note that next Monday, January 15th, is a Federal Holiday observing Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights he strove to achieve for this country.

We hope you have had a restful and fulfilling Holiday Season, and wish all the Happiest of New Years! Here is information for the week of 1/8-1-1/12 2018:

Rome Project:

Presentations for our Rome Project begin on Monday and will continue Tuesday and Wednesday, with probable (but not guaranteed) completion by end of day Wednesday. Hopefully your scholars are ready to present – we look forward to seeing the fruition of all the hard work!

Parent Teacher Conferences:

Hopefully we have had an opportunity to touch base with all our Parental Units – if we missed you for any reason, please do be in touch so that we may get your conference scheduled – we aim to see all our students’ parents/guardians during this period.

A Look at this Week:

ELA: We will continue working on Wind in the Willows. There will be no Spalding this week, but we will be tackling our usual load of 5 new vocabulary words to be tested next week (on Tuesday rather than Monday, due to the holiday next week). We will also be reviewing parts of speech, and preparing to start our next book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which we will start at the beginning of February. If you have not yet procured your student with a copy, please do so by the end of this month.

Math: This week in Math we will be reviewing multiplication and division, focusing on multiplying by 8s and 9s. Reviewing Math Facts is highly recommended for all students – Rocket Math has an IOS app for practicing math facts, and flash cards are widely available online for printing (or even better, easily homemade!)

History: We will use some of our history time this week to present our Rome Projects, and finish the week with a lesson on Archeology.

Science: In science we will be exploring the relationship between our nervous system and our senses, focusing on vision and the eye.

It is hard to believe how fast this year has gone! This will be the last week before Winter Break starts. Please keep in mind we have half days (12:30 dismissal) Monday-Wednesday.

Rome Project:

As you know, we are on track for Rome Project by now. Students should have by now turned in their final draft and the tentative schedule regarding what is still to be completed before the presentation on January 8th.

The visual aid will be due on January 8th as it is part of the presentation. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding what it should entail.

Parent Teacher Conferences:

Conferences will be January 4th-5th. Below, please find the link to follow to sign up for one of the two days we will be having conferences.

ELA: We will have our vocabulary test on Monday, the poem recitation on Tuesday, and we will have a spelling test over 15 words on Wednesday. Students will be given 15 words on Monday.

Math: We will continue to work on multiplication facts.

History: Quiz on Monday and Rome Celebration on Wednesday 🙂

Science: Continuing to work on the Nervous System

Extra Credit:

Over winter break, some parents and students like to continue to work on curriculum. With this in mind, I have always given an extra credit winter break packet (please note this is not required). I will be handing the packets out to students on Monday. It will be due anytime during 3rd quarter and only affects the 3rd Quarter grades. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Report Cards:

Report cards will be going out the first week in January please email me if you don’t receive your child’s report card before conferences.

I hope everyone has a restful, relaxing, and joyous the holiday season with friends and family!

We have a full week of curriculum this week and next – the last week of the semester is from Mon 12/18 to Wed 12/20, and will consist of half days. We have plenty to keep us busy until then – it will go by fast!

With the colder weather (at last) we are seeing some students arriving at school with jackets and sweaters – a reminder that outer wear cannot be worn in the classroom, only outdoors. Uniform sweaters and jackets may of course be worn indoors – PLEASE make sure your student’s name is on all outer garments! They are easily misplaced and difficult to return to rightful owner if not marked (they are all the same!!!)

Winter Project

As you know, we are on track for Winter Project by now. Student should have by now turned in a minimal outline, describing the three areas of focus within their subject, as well as a list of sources they are planning to use for their project. Upcoming deadlines are as follows:

Friday, December 8th: The Rough draft of Project Report was due and handed back to students with corrections. Some are being handed back December 11th.

Wednesday, December 13th: Final draft of Project Report due – refer to Project Timeline for details.

Friday, December 15th – Tentative work schedule and brief description of your visual aid for your presentation due

All materials are due January 8th, 2018. Presentations will take place January 8th– 10th in class.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Curriculum information for this week:

ELA:

We will have our vocab quiz early in the week, and start going over words for next week’s quiz. All words are being discussed in detail in class, and practiced for homework weekly.

We are continuing our reading of Little House on the Prairie, and journaling from writing prompts based on the chapters read. We will be completing the book this week 🙂

We are also continuing our reading of The Wind in the Willows, which is the source for all our vocabulary words. The text is helping us learn Literary Traits and New Vocabulary usage.

Math:

This week in Math we are learning our Multiplication and division facts by using them in long division, multiplication algorithms, and word problems.

Science:

This week we are beginning the study of the Nervous System.

History:

In history we are continuing our study of Rome, and its transition from Republic to Empire, by learning about the various personalities that contributed to its transformation.

As always, please be in touch with any questions or concerns. Have a pleasant week!

Now that the November concert has passed students will return to the use of their notebooks (for grades 3,4 and 5) and Theory Time books (for grades 4 and 5 only). I would also like students to bring a folder and a pencil to music. Students who have left materials in the music room can retrieve them outside of class time. New 4th and 5th grade students can purchase Theory Time books to be purchased from Barnes & Noble at the Chandler Fashion Mall from the school book list. I have attached a copy of the list.2017-2018 School Book List

I have also included a link to the list from the Archway Lincoln website: